With the release of the new repaint there are more people enjoying this mold than ever before. It is a GREAT set, and a lot of it has to do with the many different things you can do with it.

So I figured it would be cool to make a thread about all of the different options (combinations, mistransformations, fanmodes, add-ons, etc.) there are to help make your Brut even more fun to mess around with.

If you have done something different with any of the individual bots in any and all of their modes (alt, bot, combined), or added on anything to Brut himself, please share it here. Also, any tips on making transformation or combination easier should also be posted here as well. And include pics whenever possible!


I've got quite a few different things done to my Brut, including using Skystalker and King Bat as additional Combaticon members, but I wanted to start out with this guy first... just for giggles...

Brawl




He's definitely the ugly duckling of the bunch. Not much you can do with his botmode, but as you can see I gave him the "hand cannons" as weapons instead of the two guns that FP intended. I like them better on his altmode than the other two.






There are a couple of options I have come up with to improve upon his leg mode as well. This first one just involves rotating the turret 180 degrees so that it points up instead of down.





I think it helps that Brawl's visible fists are now on the lower shin instead of being an eye sore on his knee cap area.







The second one requires a slight mod to the existing figure in which you need to cut off the "elbow spikes" on Brawl's botmode. I realize that not everyone wants to chop up there TFs, and that's completely understandable. But if you're interested, here it is.






And with this configuration you can store the sniper rifle on Brut's leg, sort of Robocop style.






And here it is in altmode, unattached to the foot.







I think it looks pretty cool with the guns on top of the turret instead of on the sides.


So those are my thoughts on improving Brawl. I know it is only a minor improvement at best, but I do like it better than how he appears stock.
I'll be adding more posts abouts the other Combaticons in the coming days. But until then, I hope that others chime in with their thoughts and any improvements they have thought of as well.


Also, here is a link to a thread w/ a poll that I started a while back...
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...89447-how-do-you-arm-display-fp-bruticus.html
It's sort of the genesis for this thread, and also newly applicable with the sudden influx of new FP Brut owners.

 

Never knew about that Brawl mod. Looks pretty good, might have to do that. I still have my Heavytread waiting to be converted into Brawl though, lol.

 

Looks cool - cannot wait to mess around with these guys individually. So far, I have them combined as Bruticus on my night stand - just cant help and admire how awesome it is.

 

I ditched FansProject's little head and simply added a ball-joint to the G1 head to replace it.

 

Camera's in the shop, but I did a mistransformation that allows the huge collossus cannons to store vertically to onslaught's back to homage his g1 equivilant, as well as attached some minicon ports to the back so his feet pods can go back there and not limit his arm articulation. The best part is, it doesn't interfere with the other two modes.

 

oh whaaat thats tight

 

arguably better. cant tell if its the photography or not...
can we get any photos of the whole fig? curious to see the G1 head scaled to the rest of the body.

 

Yeah, it's a simple mod that I came up with not too long ago. Hadn't seen anyone else do it before. Not really a DRASTIC improvement, but a bit better IMHO.

No doubt about it, combined mode is a thing of beauty in and of itself. But once you start messing around with the individual bots (in all of their modes) you will really start to get your money's worth.  

I like a little head every now and then...  

But I must say that replacement head looks pretty good. Like deaculpa said though, I'd like to see a pic of the entire figure to see how it sizes up to the rest of Brut's body.

I believe I've come across a pic or two of that fanmode before. Not sure how it was done though, so I look forward to seeing a pic of it whenever you're able.



Just finished snapping some pics of Vortex, but my damn battery died before I could load them all up to my computer. Hopefully I can post them today, if not tomorrow.

 

Wow! Huh..that's really cool. Now I must track down a G1 head an try this.

 

The foot piece for Brawl that comes with the new G1 color Asia set is a greyish color rather than a transparent one, so attaching it as a set of guns to the top of Brawl doesn't look out of place and covers the fist holes:

 

Dang. That really does help. I always hated the translucent parts. Anyone have suggestions for substitutes to cover the fist holes?

 

Looks like this thread is getting tons of views so far, but I hope that the participation picks up a bit. lol.

Thanks to all of those who have chimed in with opinions and suggestions thus far. Keep them coming! And don't forget about the pics too!


And now for the next Combaticon...

Vortex





His botmode is much better than Brawls for starters. I usually leave his missle pods off of his shoulders because the hinges on mine ar pretty floppy. But the under slung guns look pretty sweet by themselves IMHO.


As for the altmode, there are a few options for that as well. Besides from the FP intended config (Missle pods on either side), I've come up with this config as well.







I think it keeps the copter a bit more streamlined while still keeping the missle pod that functions as Brut's shoulder contained on Vortex. Just detach it and flip it 180 degrees and reatach. I also like that it keeps the altmode almost exactly how it was intended originally by Hasbro too.

And if you absolutely need to kill every MF in the place... you can still beef up the altmode like so.







I really like the silhouette this config gives the copter. Reminds me of the space marines drop ship from Aliens a little.


And now onto the arm mode. I haven't been including pics of FP's intended config so far, but I thought I should for this one for comparisons sake. I'll post the FP config followed by my prefered mistransformation.

FP standard config


Fanmode mistranformation


I prefer it this way for a few reasons. First, aesthetically, it covers up the shoulder connector flap on Vortex. I think it blends in better this way. The brownish grey shoulder flap connector always seemed like it stuck out like a sore thumb to me. A bit of an eye sore IMO, with an easy solution.

FP standard config


Fanmode mistransformation


Also it makes Vortex's shoulder more symetrical with Blastoff's. Now there is the same gap between the head and copter shoulder as there is on the other side with the head and shuttle shoulder. The arms folded up there was also a bit bothersome to me.

FP standard config


Fanmode mistranformation


And finally, with the arms folded down alongside the copter, it gives a bit more range of motion. I know that the arms didn't hinder the shoulder's range of motion very much to begin with, but this way gives you the ability to make poses like so.








So that wraps up my thoughts on improving the Vortex molds various modes. I hope that this helps some of you and maybe inspires some new configs we haven't seen yet.


Oh, and on a final note, I'm sure some or all fo you have noticed that I replaced Vortex's stock, collapsable rotor with a four bladed black rotor. It gives him a bit more accuracy to how he looked in the old cartoon. I took it (and the four bladed tail rotor as well) off of a Matchbox helicopter I found at Walmart a while back.

 

Turn them 45 degrees as to have the arm guns showing on top instead of the sides.

 

Wow! I must say that looks pretty good!

I think you might have just created a market for the useless combiner kibble that comes with the new Asia Brut rerelease! lol

Yeah, I posted the suggestion that CybertronianFan in the OP of this thread.

Also, you can just rotate the turret 180 degrees so that the guns are pointing up instead of down. Doesn't cover the fist holes, but it does camoflauge them a bit better by putting them on the lower shin instead of on the knee cap area. This is my prefered method.

 

Nice shots, guys!

Just my minor contributions. Oldies but goodies:



I swapped the legs on Onslaught so that the 6 raised detailed panels face forward when in combined mode (provided Onslaught's feet are positioned away to the sides). By itself, it's no big deal but added with the Reprolabels sticker set, the 6 silver grating stickers face forward and match the detailing in the crotch plate, which I think gives the upper legs some visual pop.

The PCC Heavytread mod is pretty well known by now but what to do with the stock Brawl? Let him carry Bruti's shotguns while in tank mode. It gives Brawl some mean looking double turrets (plugged into Brawl's hand-holes) and provides weapons storage so that Bruti can move his arms without any hindrance (the shotguns get in the way when pegged into his backpack).

 

Curious. That mini-gun on the rack in the background of this pic. Does it fit 5 mm pegs or hands? If yes, where did you acquire it from?

 

Two things I like. Using the one arm on vortex to mount the sniper rifle as a shoulder cannon. Snapping the side torso plates at an angle into the arm connectors. Both shown in this pic.

X

 

Will this do?



I think it scales a whole lot better than the FansProject head.

Brilliant. I may just repaint my transparent one for just that purpose!

 

^^ Yes, love the G1 head on Bruticus. I actually did a comission for someone to add the ball joint and paint it a bit; black line around the eyes--I add larger antennae also. Have a look: